Crafting using everything from Aida to zips and everything in between.

Another Easter make using fabric yoyos, this time it’s an Easter chicken!

Following on from the yoyo Easter bunny I decided to make an Easter chicken with yoyo dangly legs. Similarly to the bunny this is great for using up all the bits of fabric left over from other craft projects, something which I always seem to have plenty of!

I opted for yellows and oranges for this chicken but you could use any colours you wanted. You can also make it as big or as small as you like by just changing the size of the templates used.

Easter chicken with dangly yoyo legs
Materials
Fabric – orange for the legs (enough for 28 yoyos in total) and 3 different colours for the body

Thread

Needle

Paper for templates

Pins

Toy stuffing

2 buttons

Felt, red for comb and wattles, orange for beak
1- Make the paper templates
For the body: you will need an oval shape with a pointed top to the size you want the chicken body to be. Mine was 12cm long and 4.5cm wide at the middle.

For the yoyo legs: you need a circle for the yoyos, mine was 6.5cm.

2- Cut out the fabric and felt

For the body: cut out 2 body pieces in each of the 3 colours (6 pieces in total), making sure you leave a 0.5cm seam allowance when cutting out.
For the legs: cut out 28 pieces of fabric.
For the wattles, beak and comb: cut out a triangle for the beak in Orange felt, the cut a comb and wattles in red.

3- Making the body

Split the 6 body pieces into two piles, each pile having one of each of the 3 colours. Using one of these piles take two pieces and place right sides together, sew down one side, now take the third body piece place right sides together and sew down the side. This makes one side of the body. Repeat this to make the other side.

4- Adding in the beak, wattles and comb
Place one of the body sides right side up and lay the beak, wattles and comb facing inwards so 0.5cm of them hangs over the edge of the fabric, pin to secure. Place the other body piece right side down on top and pin in place. Sew around to join the to body pieces together, leaving a 4 cm gap for turning. Turn the right way around, stuff with toy stuffing and slip stitch closed.

5- Making the legs

To make the yoyos for the leg: Thread your needle, and tie a knot in the end. Turning the edge of the circle inwards, sew around the edge of the circle and once you reach the point where you started, pull the thread tightly so the fabric gathers up. Fasten this off to complete – repeat until you have made all the yoyos.

To make the legs: starting with a button cast on and sew to the back of a yoyo. Now thread on 13 more yoyos to give 14 in total, now sew onto the body of the chicken and repeat for the other leg.
6- Adding the eyes